Indeed, that journey is reserved only for heroes and heroines.  No one can take the same steps as they did.  Many protagonists live only in a writer’s imagination; but certain write their story behind the scenes, unknown, hidden, without any attempt to make themselves public.  Then, it becomes author’s journey, unexpected and mostly complex, to reveal them.  Journey, that provides him with the experiences to recount all the tiny details and loose ends as a breathtaking tapestry, proudly standing in our libraries on a prestige place.

 

The rewards are remarkable – quenched thirst for knowing more, travels to places, physical or intellectual, where he would not ever go.  Meeting the people he would not know otherwise, understanding the simplest truths, which are for most unclear.  

 

On the end, just a book remains in his hand.  For the author, however it is the space which encircled more lifetimes  than he can embrace,  carried more weight than he can retain,  brought more tears than the seas are able to  hold,  endured the pain  and strain  of forged chains.

 

His heroes and heroines are real; they existed and encouraged his journey. The journey which many would not walk, but some hear it as their “call”.

 

UMBERTO TOSI’s call brings us the story, which could be written only if he loved the journey and enjoyed the sharing with us.

 

Ophelia - woman who did and wrote of what I would not dare - breathed worlds of possibilities and tasted freedom, beholden to none, far from the circumspect existence of noble young ladies.

 

Reading OPHELIA RISING I was touched by invisible, but ever-present author’s poetic self. 

 

In the stream of a river taking Ophelia far from the place of her living, I felt the surrender and strength. Surrender to her old, predestined life, letting people make what they will of her story. And the strength to start a new one.  

 

The death has many variants, none is ultimate. It takes courage to disentangle from the path of yesterday and start anew.  Ophelia’s will to live is transferred as a siren’s song to those who are able to hear.  Rescued by one of the traveling actors’ group, Ophelia started her new life as a new play begins - on a stage.

 

Traveling through the late Renaissance Europe, her story unfolds in an unexpected amalgamation of Norse mythology and a heat of lavish, southern artistry.  Meanwhile, base motives drive the monarchs to shed the blood and earthly reasons keep the clergy in control of masses.

 

“Whom does he think builds our magnificent churches and vouchsafes the power of the church? The people dropping their coins pitifully in collection baskets, or those whom God has chosen to be their estate holders, bankers and rulers?”

 

Ophelia expresses herself in a strange language of flowers, while retaining her childhood dreams built from the sands of Sonia, innocence of her youthful discoveries and the merit of the promises made in a joyful game.  

 

“I speak in flowers when words won’t do and truth cannot be told outright.”

 

We discover the wisdom of life hidden in the simplest moments between the acts that moved the history and admire the tough decisions which no one thought her to make but many try to judge.

 

“Sin, my dear sister, can be defined by costume.”

 

Ophelia, taking a bold decision, plays double-role of Olivia and Oliver. Not only on the stage, but especially in her daily life.  Being unmarried with a child was a direct way to the nunnery or to be called a whore in those days.

 

She is aware about the danger of being revealed and being accused of spying or heresy.  But while the male clothes don’t make her a man, give her an unprecedented freedom, which, as woman she would not be able to enjoy, or to use to advantage.  

 

“Such is the world into which I have brought my Ari – a world where the seven cardinal vices out shout the seven virtues, as far as I can see.”

 

Ophelia leaves her home behind in Elsinore and Denmark by the sea, reaching Amsterdam and the Netherland, only to survive the long siege of Leiden. She continues on her way to Lyon, where she hopes to find the rest of her family.  We are allowed to enter her inner world and experience her thoughts, struggles, fears and hopes.  Being Oliver on a stage and on the boat, boldly playing role of a young man, she remembers her adventures with prince Hamlet and her brother Laertes.

 

As a young girl, she used to wear boy’s clothes and participate in most of prince Hamlet’s activities. Studying with him, mastering the arts of sword and dagger, strengthening on a horseback.  In that time, no one judged her disguise as illegal.  Now, her lady manners were less useful than her ability to take on the role of a man, behave as a man, communicate as a man, and fight as a man.

 

Also to make compromises as a man; if she and her group of actors, I Comici, wanted to leave the freed city of Leiden, they had to take Pieter Orneck and his group of spies as members of their group. Intimate relation with Pieter, even longer and mutual than that with Hamlet, bring her the same disastrous results.  Emotional pain, when Pieter was murdered instead of Prince William, while she was with Pieter’s child.

 

Ophelia’s knowledge of flowers, plants and mushrooms then became, as many times during her entire life, very useful.

 

Sixteenth century Antwerp and its rich and free life became another of Ophelia’s homes for a short time. Together with her, I enjoyed wandering, unnoticed, through the walled city’s streets full of merchants, bankers and swindlers. The game of live was played in all its variations and with all its dangers. Artists and craftsmen from over the world mingled here freely, as those of different faiths and hidden aims.  

 

Staying in the house of widow Cöck, owner of The Four Winds, the biggest Antwerp’s printing establishment, gave Ophelia an opportunity to write, draw and read.  Also to rewind her memories of her late mother, beloved and missed, but now seen alive again in the face of her generous host.

 

When the city’s garrison of Spanish mercenary soldiers, tired and tried, broke in revolt, she must run again. She knows where to go, but with whom? Horatio, Hamlet’s friend recognized her while she was outdoors with her son and offered her a safe transportation and his protection. Meeting the mysterious father Beppo again - one who had blessed her secret marriage with prince Hamlet during a childhood enchantment, gave her another possibility.

 

Should she continue with the group, I Comici, to Italy by a boat, or under the safety of Father Beppo’s “pilgrimage group” to her mother’s family home in Lyon?

 

She thinks about her son – Aricin – and what the best is for him. 

 

Ophelia yearned for her family, but feared how they would receive her after being pronounced dead, now alive, but unmarried and with a small boy.  Father Beppo seems to have a solution for her worries.   Official marriage contract between her and prince Hamlet, dated ten years earlier.  This forged paper could bring her the status of princess and mother of a king-to-be - everything that she had wanted to avoid and keep from her son.  In this situation, Ophelia realized the deepest consequences of her life.

 

But she didn’t know that behind the scenes a great game was already being played out in the palaces of Spain, Flanders, Italy and Denmark in which she and her son were just chess pieces.  Horatio’s book, clearing the massacre in the Hamlet’s family, put Ophelia and her son on the spot light. That, in turn has led to back stage intrigues of high politics.  Inquisitorial Cardinal Spinola with his papal ambitions, Enzo Palmieri and his financial interests, the Geuzen – Dutch Independence fighters played their powerful roles.  Who wants to use her son and get rid of her, who wants to help her?  Amid scenes full of clandestine agreements and international involvements, we await Ophelia’s next step.

 

We are all players on the scenes of life.  Everyone plays many roles; there is no good one and there is no bad one. All are interconnected. The choice is always ours.

 

Ophelia chose to travel with pilgrimage group to Lyon.  What we desire the most, is always the destiny in motion.  She found her family, and her enemies found her.

 

UMBERTO TOSI has created historical fiction so real, that alternatives seems to fit the story more than real facts. But what is real and what is alternative? Can we say clearly?

 

All readers who prefer reading classic literature will find the book highly attractive; eliciting fascination, stirring emotions and elevating minds as only poetry can do.

 

I wish to give credit to the author for creating the story of woman with all the nooks of her soul and the complexity of her being.  I felt her joy of childhood and melancholy of adulthood, pain overtaken by decisiveness and strength of her surrender within the cell of St. George Cloister. Her inner shivering when in danger, the vastness of her adaptability in unfamiliar places. Ophelia’s determination was mine and her ability to recover real. She didn’t desire for a pretended affection, but knew how to receive love when was offered truly. She didn’t ask for hardship’s compensations but stands up when called upon to lead the way to higher good.

 

UMBERTO TOSI has brought us the picture of a woman and her story, unfolding in a distanced timeline of past centuries, but with the personal qualities of a strong, independent, yet sensitive and wise individual, still unreachable for many.

 

“Why must human beings be so beastly.”

 

“You slander the beasts.” She answered. “This is the heart of man. Women know it more than men and poets know it most deeply.”

 

Author’s poetic heart doesn’t need many words to express, in two or three sentences, what encompasses depth of human intimacy. I haven’t read such a figurative language in a long while.

 

"They breathed in unison for a long while – pressed like rose petals between the silken sheets, conspiring to steal a moment’s more of bliss."

 

The author follows the simple story line; writing as if a real time memories, taking the detours to the past, he follows –up swiftly and keeps the reader tense. Short chapters make the pace smooth and energetic.

 

The presence of Hamlet as a ghost I understood as an interpretation of the highly perceptive, open minds of artists and women, able to sense the subtlety of distinct energies.  I think, author, aware of such advantage, put words of wisdom into ghost’s mouth.

 

“Always, each man is seeking for himself alone ... No light will help him in this lonely place.”

 

Kudos to the author for his vast and detailed profile of the Europe in 16th century, filled with the intrigues of empires and royal courts, marching armies, religious conflicts and rebelling groups.  We witness the local impacts of international decisions, of internal interests distorted by distance. New ideas collide with old ways, while religious dogmas control masses.  Indebted countries occupied as sources of wealth, supplies and manpower.  Scholarly freedom clashes with ignorant servitude.

 

“The more vast one’s vision of the world and the cosmos, the smaller it makes the mighty and powerful on this speck of earth, indeed, the more humble us all. The greater the gilded celestial globe, the more insignificant the crowns of kings, Marcellus.”

 

The whole book amounts to a profound and poetic account of Ophelia’s possible life, built on extensive research, a careful and sensitive approach, affluent language and fitting style. OPHELIA RISING takes readers on a captivating grand-tour. 

 

I highly recommend OPHELIA RISING by UMBERTO TOSI for all who prefer classic literature, historical fiction, poetic language and artistic expressions.

 

I give OPHELIA RISING by UMBERTO TOSI 5 stars for contents and readers’ experience.

I will skip technical evaluation of the book because I didn’t read the final version of published book.

 

Reviewed on 27th October 2014

 

The picture on the background: Bartholomaus Spranger's Minerva Triumphs over Ignorance.

The real Ophelia supposedly stood as model for that picture.